Always one of the best session at the Beer Bloggers Conference, the Live Beer Blogging session lived up to the hype yesterday afternoon on the first day of the 2012 conference in Indianapolis, IN.

Here’s how it works.  Conference attendees sit around ten circular tables with laptops, ipads, cellphones, and cameras at the ready.  Ten breweries, each assigned to a table, have five minutes to tell the bloggers something about their brewery, pour a sample of their beer, describe it, and answer questions – all while bloggers frantically attempt to put their thoughts out to cyberspace. When the five minutes are up, the breweries rotate to the next table.

It’s a mixture of frustrating and fantastic fun.  Fun, because of the frenzied, lively atmosphere.  Frustrating in the in sense that most of us typically take our time with a beer. But, hey, the fun part of it definitely carries the day.

Here’s the list in the order we tried them at Table No. 6: 

• Arctic Panzer Wolf Imperial IPA, Three Floyds Brewing Co., Munster, IN
• Shift Pale Lager, New Belgium Brewing Co., Fort Collins, CO.
• End Game Russian Imperial Stout, Big Horn Brewing Co. (Ram), Indianapolis, IN
• Hazed and Infused IPA, Boulder Beer Co., Boulder, CO.
• Wreck Alley Imperial Stout, Karl Strauss Brewing Co., San Diego, CA
• Schlafly American IPA, The St. Louis Brewery, St. Louis, MO
• Damien Belgian Golden Strong Ale, Barley Island Brewing Co., Noblesville, IN
• Workingman’s Pilsner, Fountain Square Brewing Co., Indianapolis, IN
• Magnificent Amber, Triton Brewing Co., Indianapolis, IN

My favorite was Wreck Alley Imperial Stout, followed very closely with End Game RIS – not surprisingly since big stouts are my favorite style. The Arctic Panzer Wolf – an imperial IPA at the opposite end of the spectrum from the stouts – totally rocks, too.

I suspect the brewers/breweries feels a sense of relief when the ten lightning quick sessions are done, but they’ve gained a lot of fans in the process.  Here are some pictures from the fun.